Class learns during exercise
ADAMS TWP — The conceptual physics class of Mars High School did not kill any astronauts Wednesday.
But the 17 students from the class of Peter Black did communicate via Skype with Commander Melinda Gribben at Wheeling Jesuit University's Challenger Learning Center in the Space Station Alpha project. The project turns students into erstwhile NASA engineers who must solve problems encountered by astronauts in space.
Gribben, with headset and official NASA patches on her blue shirt, served as mission control's Crisis Management expert, while five teams of students provided her with data that would keep six astronauts alive on the International Space Station.
Gribben used an actual situation aboard the space station in 2001 when a solar storm caused a critical situation for six American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts aboard the station.
The Mars students were divided into five teams, the storm, life support, radiation, crisis and communication teams, to use math, science and communications skills to provide the information Gribben would need to lead the astronauts through the dangerous solar storm.
The teams simulated the NASA scientists who actually worked on the solar storm crisis in 2001.
The teams heard Gribben report that a month-old solar storm has trapped six astronauts in one section of the space station because of radiation coming from the storm. Gribben showed footage from the 2001 incident as if it were occurring in real time.
“The space station is in a heightened alert situation,” reported Gribben, who appeared on a large white board in the front of the classroom.
She said the storm caused major disruptions, electrical outages, loss of some communications, and the potential for radiation poisoning in the part of the space station nearest the storm.
Communication team leader Courtney Shaffer talked with Gribben, giving technical information that the teams provided after consulting data on their computers and on charts and spreadsheets.
The teams solved problems with dropping oxygen and rising carbon dioxide levels by sending one astronaut into the part of the space station where radiation levels were highest to retrieve space suits and breathing apparatus that would protect the other astronauts. The students then recommended that the astronauts in the protective space suits retrieve oxygen-producing candles from the radiated part of the space station.While some of the candles were retrieved, Shaffer told Gribben they did not require lighting because levels were returning to normal.“Awesome. Good job,” Gribben said.When one astronaut became nauseous, Gribben asked the students if he should inhale some oxygen. They responded that they were just about to advise the same.“You guys are really making excellent recommendations, and the astronauts are following them,” Gribben said.Soon the astronaut's nausea was gone and the oxygen levels aboard the space station returned to normal, signaling the end of the mission. Gribben summoned each team to the Skype camera individually to ask them what challenges and accomplishments they had during the mission.As the students left to attend their next class, Gribben told Black that his students made all the right recommendations.“I was just thrilled with everything your students did,” Gribben told Black.Black said the virtual missions are a valuable tool for assessing students as opposed to traditional tests, because he can determine in real time whether students grasp the material. Black also said it is gratifying to see unlikely leaders emerge during the fairly high-pressure assignment.The Space Station Alpha program is sponsored by the Challenge Learning center at Wheeling Jesuit University, and was funded through a grant from the Mars Planet Foundation.
